Psycho-comedy springs onto LSSU Arts Center stage

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI - The LSSU Theatre Company is proud to present Beyond Therapy, a hilarious play highlighting social miscues and mishaps set in the 1970s.

Filled with slapstick comedy and absurd humour, this play is sure to have you in stitches for its duration.

Directing the play is Jenn Hunter, assistant professor in the College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Performances run on the Arts Center stage March 28-30, with Friday and Saturday shows at 7:30 p.m. and a Sunday matinee at 2:30 p.m.

The production does contain adult language and content.

Beyond Therapy, written by American playwright Christopher Durang, focuses on characters Prudence and Bruce, two Manhattanites who are seeking stable romantic relationships with the help of their psychiatrists, each of who suggests the patient place a personal ad.

The LSSU cast includes Jana Tahtinen playing Prudence, a sarcastic woman looking for a stable relationship.

Sam Carter will be playing Bruce, a highly emotional man who uses a personal add to attract women, as advised by his quirky therapist, Charlotte, played by Chantelle Adkins.

Also in this comedic lineup are John Golob (Stuart), Seth Witucki (Bob), and Kelby Ankerson (Andrew).

Beyond Therapy opened off-Broadway on January 1, 1981 at the Phoenix Theatre in New York, directed by Jerry Zaks, and ran for 30 performances.

The cast included Sigourney Weaver and Jack Gilpin as Bob.

In 1987, Durang adapted the play for a screenplay that was rewritten substantially by director Robert Altman.

Although the two shared a screenwriting credit, Durang described the project as "a very unhappy experience and outcome."

Durang's work was especially popular in the 1980s, though his career seemed to get a second wind in the late 1990s.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2013.

He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2006 for Miss Witherspoon.

Beyond Therapy remains one of Durang's most frequently produced plays around the country, and are popular in colleges, regional, and community theatres.

LSSU production show times are 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, March 28-30, and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 30.

Tickets - $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $8 for students - are available at the Norris Center box office on campus, by phone at 906-635-2602, online at www.lssu.edu/artscenter, or at the Arts Center box office when it opens a half-hour before all performances.